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Since our founding in 1986, Equal Exchange has worked with small-scale farmers, because we believe small farmer co-operatives are the heart and soul of Fair Trade. Though Equal Exchange began as a coffee company, our commitment to small farmers has remained foundational, even as our company and product lines have grown. For over a decade, we've partnered with farmer co-ops in Latin America to bring you high quality, fairly traded chocolates.

The first Fair Trade farmer-owned certification system, referred to as the Small Producer Symbol (SPP, for its Spanish acronym) will arrive this fall on Equal Exchange coffees in food co-ops and natural food stores across the country. Ten years in the making, the SPP certification system represents the small farmers’ persistent attempt to ensure a more just trade system for their fellow farmers everywhere. The colorful SPP logo will initially appear on Equal Exchange coffee bags and bulk coffee bins, and will soon become more prominent throughout stores.

I first learned about the Enough Project in 2011 while attending Informed Activism: Armed Conflict, Scarce Resources, and Congo at Clark University, during which more than 400 people gathered to talk about our individual efforts working in the Congo. At the time, I didn’t know much about the conflict in the D.R. Congo (DRC) and over the course of two days I was horrified to learn about how mining, sexual violence and child solders contribute to a very complex war. Did the tantalum in my cell phone come from the Congo? How would I know?

I am an Intentional Interim Minister, which means I serve churches during the period between settled pastors, while the church is going through a search process. My unusual vocation has also given me a unique opportunity to introduce Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade coffee program to a wide variety of churches.

Losing a cow is like having your savings account wiped out. Several animals were lost to the family farmers of the Cooperative José Gabriel Condorcanquí in Peru when this past March, unusually heavy rains fell for a few days and caused small mudslides. The innumerable shade and native trees farmers maintain around their coffee plants limited damage, but for those small-scale growers who lost livestock and stables, the loss can push them to the economic brink.

My name is Carly Kadlec and I have been with Equal Exchange for just over two months. I am a Green Coffee Buyer. I just returned from my first big trip to visit coffee farmers in Peru and Bolivia. A big part of my job is this sort of “origin trip” to visit farmers and see how their harvest is going, discuss our quality standards with them, go over the previous year’s contracts with the co-operatives, and discuss the greater world of coffee face-to-face with farmers.

Over the years we have worked with cuppers from around the world as a tool to find and secure delicious coffee. We wondered, how can we better connect baristas and coffee shop owners, the folks who sell and represent the delicious coffee we work so hard to lay hands on, with coffee cuppers, the people that work so hard to get us these tasty little beans? The result: Cooperation in Quality 2013.

Hello Summer! Humidity, sunshine and travel. If you are like most, your summer schedule is already filling up rapidly. With travel comes the hassle of meal planning on the go…..eating out more, grabbing junk food at the convenience store - we all do it. The past few years, I have challenged myself to continue to live out my principles of eating nutritious food, and eating food from companies and farmers that I believe in, while on the road. What? Is this possible in a world where most people can’t even eat this way in their home?